Gingerbread Biscuits

Gingerbread Biscuits

These gingerbread biscuits are crisp, soft and chewy with the perfect amount of warm ginger spice, there’s only one problem, they are ridiculously moreish!



They come together quickly and easily, using just a few ingredients, great for making and decorating with children. You can leave them plain or decorate them after they’re baked with royal icing as desired. This is one biscuit I love to make for Christmas every year for the family, which is always a winner.

I love to bake a few different biscuits/cookies for Christmas and arrange them on a nice platter for when people drop by. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these Christmas recipes: chestnut snowball cookies, Viennese biscuits, cranberry lemon shortbread, cinnamon biscuits and Linzer Biscuits.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and the other readers. And don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram. I love seeing what you come up with! 🙂


RECIPE HIGHLIGHTS

  • EASE: incredibly easy to make and you only need to use one bowl.
  • FREE-FROM: check my substitutions section for gluten-free option.
  • GREAT FOR: a treat, Christmas or friends and family visiting, they also make nice homemade gifts!
  • TASTE & TEXTURE: a sweet, soft, chewy biscuit with a crisp outside and ginger spice.
  • SERVING: they are delicious on their own or served with a nice hot cup of tea.
  • QUANTITY: 25-30 biscuits
  • TIME: 10 minutes, plus 1 hour chilling.


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    © THE GOURMET LARDER. All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to share this recipe, please do so using the share buttons provided. Please do not republish the recipe or its content in full instead, include a link to this post for the recipe. Further information can be found in my FAQ’s.


    INGREDIENTS

    For this recipe all you need are these ingredients:

    • Butter – adds structure and flavour. I use salted butter for most of my baking as it intensifies the flavours, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer. Make sure it’s at room temperature before using.
    • Light brown sugar – adds a slight caramel sweetness to the gingerbread.
    • Molasses – adds a depth of flavour to these beautiful biscuits, as well as a soft and chewy consistency on the inside.
    • Medium egg – binds the ingredients, adds flavour and helps to make the biscuits a little lighter.
    • Pure vanilla extract or paste adds flavour and enhances the other ingredient flavours in the recipe.

    Vanilla recommendations: pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste or vanilla pods.

    • Plain (all-purpose) flour – builds structure.
    • Baking powder – is a chemical leavening which increases the volume of the ingredients, creating a nice light texture.
    • Ground ginger – gives these biscuits their distinctive taste and aroma.

    TIP: I highly recommend adding a good pinch of fine salt to your biscuit doughs. In a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory way, salt intensifies the mouths’ ability to taste sweetness. It is the sodium that sends signals to move glucose into the sweet taste receptor cells, thus triggering the cells to register sweetness. The result is that salt not only alerts our ‘salt sensitivity’, but also triggers our ‘sweet sensitive’ taste buds.




    SUBSTITUTIONS

    While I am making recommendations for alternative ingredients, I haven’t necessarily tried them. If you try making any adaptions, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

    GLUTEN-FREE OPTION


    WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

    • Spices – try adding additional spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, all spice or cardamon. You don’t need much, so just half a teaspoon of one or two of these spices.

    If you experiment, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.


    NUTRITION

    Serving: one gingerbread biscuit (no icing)

    Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on factors such as precision of measurements, brands, ingredient freshness, or the source of nutrition data.

    I strive to keep the information as accurate as possible but make no warranties regarding its accuracy.

    I encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

    Gingerbread biscuits

    STORAGE AND FREEZING

    For the first day, these biscuits will be firm and crunchy but will soften as time goes by. They keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

    Freezing the baked gingerbread – cool the biscuits completely after baking and place them in a freezer bag or airtight container. They will last up to 1 month. When you are ready to serve, allow the cookies to reach room temperature.


    © THE GOURMET LARDER. All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to share this recipe, please do so using the share buttons provided. Please do not republish the recipe or its content in full instead, include a link to this post for the recipe. Further information can be found in my FAQ’s.


    TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

    Here is some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.

    I like the sturdiness of this bowl and its 4 litre capacity means I can use it for mixing just about everything in the kitchen. It is also microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe.

    These different size mixing bowls are really useful depending on the amount of food you are preparing. They also have airtight lids that fit snugly to seal and keep food fresh, so this set can be used as dry storage bowls with lids on. The plastic lid of the largest bowl has a removable centre. Where one of 3 graters can be used.

    I do own a plastic mixing bowl but I am personally not a big fan of them. These 3 bowls are on the smaller size but good for the odd cake making.

    I like this model of electric hand mixer because it comes with a large stand, meaning you don’t have to always hold it.

    Not everyone is lucky enough to have one of these but they are useful if you do a lot of baking or making bread.

    Both of these sets of cookie cutters are great for making this gingerbread recipe.

    The Gourmet Larder is an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
    If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.


    RECIPE TIPS


    Use room temperature ingredients
    – this is really important; it makes it easier to work with and allows the ingredients to emulsify properly.

    Avoid over mixing the dough – which could lead to tough biscuits. Only mix the dough until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

    Rolling out – make sure your worksurface and rolling pin are floured generously to prevent the dough from sticking to them.

    Shaping – don’t roll the dough out too thin, otherwise the biscuits will become to hard once baked.

    Resting and chilling the dough – if you want to get the best results, placing the dough in the fridge prior to baking allows the dry ingredients to absorb the moisture from the wet ingredients. This creates more flavour in the dough and makes it easier to roll out with less sticking.

    Avoid over baking the biscuits – all ovens are different, and you want to avoid overbaking this biscuit. The size of your biscuits will determine the amount of time they require to bake. My medium size biscuits, which are 10cm in length, take around 10 minutes to bake for a soft version and up to 14 minutes for a crunchy version. Any longer and you will be left with a hard, crunchy cookie.

    Gingerbread biscuits

    Gingerbread Biscuits

    Preparation:6 minutes
    Baking:10 minutes
    Chilling:1 hour
    Total:1 hour 16 minutes
    Servings: 28 biscuits
    These gingerbread biscuits are crisp, soft and chewy with the perfect amount of warm ginger spice, there's only one problem, they are ridiculously moreish!

    INGREDIENTS LIST
     

    Gingerbread

    • 150 g butter (at room temperature)
    • 150 g light brown sugar
    • 100 g molasses
    • 1 medium egg (at room temperature)
    • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract or 1/4 tsp of vanilla paste
    • 350 g plain flour (all-purpose)
    • 1 tsp baking powder
    • 1 tbsp ground ginger
    • ¼ tsp fine sea salt

    Royal Icing

    • 100 g icing sugar
    • 2 medium egg whites (or egg white powder or aquafaba)
    • 1-2 tsp room temperature water
    • food colouring optional

    Preparation
     

    • In a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
    • Add the egg, molasses and vanilla and beat until combined, while scraping down the sides as necessary, until smooth.
    • Sift the flour, baking soda, ginger and salt into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Mix until you are able to bring the mixture together with your hands to form a ball of dough. Cover with clingfilm or place it in an airtight container if you don't plan to bake them the same day. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.
    • Preheat the oven to 190°C / 170°C fan / 375°F / Gas 5 and line two baking trays with baking paper or parchment.
    • Shaping: Lightly flour your worksurface and roll out the dough to approximately 6mm (¼ inch) in height. Cut out your desired biscuit shapes. I like to use a number of different cutters including my classic gingerbread man. Place the cut outs onto the lined baking trays, leaving a little space between each of them. Repeat this process with the rest of the dough.
    • Baking: The size of your biscuits will determine the amount of time they require to bake. My medium size biscuits which are 10 cm (4 inches) in length, take around 10 minutes to bake for a soft version. If you like your gingerbread a little crunchier (harder) then I leave them up to 14 minutes.
      Here is a rough guide:
      Small: 7-10 minutes, medium: 10-14 minutes, large: 12-16 minutes.
      Once baked, allow the biscuits to sit on the baking tray to cool for about 5 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

    Royal Icing

    • In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the egg whites at high speed until frothy. Add the icing sugar and mix for 3-4 minutes until stiff peaks form. Add enough water to get your desired consistency, I usually find 1 teaspoon works for me, but it may vary.
    • Colour the frosting with food colouring as desired. Using a piping bag, pipe the frosting on the biscuits.When icing the biscuits, I recommend going around the edge of the biscuit first and allowing that to dry, before filling in the centre areas. This also applies to using other colours as they will run into one another if not allowed to dry first. You can place any unused icing in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 1 week.
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    KEYWORDS biscuit and cookie recipes, christmas recipes, ginger

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    Gingerbread biscuits

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